This is a book review for The Sacred Journey by Charles Foster - a book I received for free from BookSneeze in exchange for an objective and honest opinion.
First I have to say: this is an extremely dangerous book to read. Read it at your own risk. The risk is to your comfort zone. Foster writes this book to connect the idea of physical pilgrimage to modern day Christianity - especially the cushy stuff-filled convenience we're familiar with. He points out that we spend our lives "walking" with Jesus, spreading the gospel "movement," and we're on our spiritual "journey." But many of us are unwilling to get off the couch. He presents the idea that physical. movement is directly connected to spiritual growth. And as I read, I came to agree with him.
Jesus himself was nothing like the modern Christian. To follow Jesus you had to actually drop everything and GO. The very act of the disciples going with Jesus physically showed repentance in leaving behind their old selves and completely changing their way of life. Jesus spent very little time in what then urban society and much of his time traveling and in the wilderness - after all, Jesus was a shepherd, not a farmer. The first thing he did with his brand new resurrected body was to go for a walk. Foster shows us what we've known all our lives but (I for one) haven't made the connection: Jesus doesn't just move in us, he moves us to move as well.
Jesus also had a strong preference for people that weren't in the cities but were on the "fringe" of society both in the physical and non-physical sense. Who was one of Jesus' very favorite people? The freaky-deaky, desert dwelling, bug eating, bathed only by baptism John the Baptist. Jesus' entourage consisted of societies least favorite people. Tax collectors, sinners, ill-reputed women, even <gasp> Gentiles.
Foster first establishes that moving is good. He then processes to tell us why it's good. As Foster points out "It's impossible to point to an epic hero who's a couch potato." The hero isn't a hero without his journey. We live in fleshy bodies that were made to move. To not move them defeats the purpose: to GO into the world to subdue it and to SPREAD the gospel of Jesus. We go for two main reasons: to get rid of the junk we've accumulated (the physical "stuff" and the heart "stuff"); and we encounter God.
Foster goes on to share where to go (anywhere) and what to bring (nothing). And that's where the issue of the comfort zone arises. When we become what we have, that's when we need to leave it all behind and go to meet Jesus. "Your arms are lighter because you're not carrying so much, and they lift more easily." If what you bring can cushion the journey then leave it behind.
Focus on the journey, not on the arrival. Talk to weird people and go out of the way places. Be vulnerable, not a tourist. Find out that hardships aren't so hard after all - or that they are and laugh at them - or better yet: rejoice in suffering! Cope. Walk. Answer the questions that the road demands answers to - answers you can't avoid because you have nothing to keep you busy.
Then go home. As with the prodigal son, the beginning and the destination of the journey turned out to be one and the same. When you get home you find that you haven't reached a destination but started a new journey. Home is where you apply what you've learned about life, yourself, and God.
As I said already, this is a very dangerous book to read. But for me it was more than just a danger to my comfort zone. It actually stirred up something in me that the author didn't intend to stir up. It can be very easy for someone to take the good spiritual lessons in this book and twist them just a little bit to give yourself permission to run away. I felt very stagnant in my life when I began the book. Thankfully, Foster does make a point to make sure you're not skirting responsibilities and "leaving others to mop up the mess that you have left." My husband has enough to mop up already!
However, if life has become much too comfortable to satisfy; if your spiritual walk is best described as "stagnant" - read on and be inspired into mobility. Read on to experience an exodus from your couch. Read on if you're ready to drop everything and GO.
"Salvation is by grace, not by pilgrimage. But pilgrimage can help to create the conditions in which grace can work best."
